Comic books are a fun, but challenging medium to write in, according to the writers from Black Mask Studios, who discussed why comic books are their chosen medium during a Baltimore Comic Con panel.

“I think that one of the really interesting things about comics is it takes a lot of passion and drive to push through – it is as difficult to do comics as it is to do any medium,” Matt Pizzolo, writer of “Young Terrorists” and “Godkiller,” and co-founder of Black Mask Studios, said. “It takes a very special kind of tenacity and perseverance to make comics on your own and put together your team.”

“I find writing comics to be one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done,” Patrick said. “I think it is the serial element that really intrigues me because you have this limited amount of space to convey a message and to generate an enthralling character that exists in a continuum.”

“Comics can’t do what prose does diving into language and narration as much,” Rosenberg explained. “In prose, if you need a scene to be longer, you can just add more pages. In comics, you have 20 pages, and only so many panels on a page and you can only fit so much dialogue in each panel. All of that is really fun to challenge yourself with.”

Rosenberg, who comes from a family of writers, pointed out that writing a comic script is different than writing a movie or television script.

“In comics you have 20 pages, and only so many panels on a page and you can only fit so much dialogue in each panel. All of that is really fun to challenge yourself with.”

— Matthew Rosenberg, writer of "We Can Never Go Home" and "4 Kids Walk Into A Bank."

“When I started writing comics I noticed that, in a ton of movies and television shows, they built toward this dramatic moment, the crux of the story, and there are a lot of things that are good and very well respected where the dialogue drops out, the score swells, the camera pulls out and it is this big emotional moment, and as a comics writer I am always so in love with that, and I’m like, ‘What a cheat. What an amazing cheat to not have to write the scene where the sad thing happens, where people deal with the problem,’” Rosenberg said. “Comics have their cheats too, but I find them to be more visceral on the page.”

Because comic books are her favorite medium through which to have stories told to her, Tini Howard, writer of the upcoming “The Skeptics,” said that is why she finds it easier to tell her own stories through that same medium.

“I love stories of any kind – even on television and in movies – but my favorite way to digest any story has always been pictures with word bubbles,” Howard said. “So, part of what led me to write comics is that it’s my favorite way to read, and since it is my favorite medium to digest, it is the one I feel I know the most about, and so that is the one I want to tell stories in.”

She also enjoys the collaborative aspect of writing for comic books, Howard said.

Black Mask Studios logo.(Photo: Black Mask Studios)

“If I wanted to go sit in a house for six months, and emerge with a story, I guess I’d write novels, but I like to write a script and send it to an artist and have them put their take on it, and see what the colorist does,” Howard explained. “I like collaboration – it keeps me motivated, and helps me to get a story done.”

Magdalene Visaggio, writer of “Kim & Kim,” agreed that collaborating on a comic book script is a good way to stay motivated.

“I’m really lazy, so the only way I can get my stuff done is if I have a team of people depending on me to keep it coming,” Visaggio said. “I’m super deadline driven, and I don’t like to disappoint people.”

Visaggio, who said she started making comics at around the time she started reading comics, said she feels that the combination of the medium’s limitations along with the serialized aspect of comic books creates a fun dynamic that allows for a different kind of storytelling.

“One of the things I’m doing in ‘Kim & Kim’ is that the first issue is kind of like a space opera, and then the second issue has necromancy in it, and in the third issue, there are robot gorillas – each issue, despite it being one overarching story, is its own little tale with its own dramatic arc that is playing with different genres as it moves forward,” Visaggio said. “I like that you have that flexibility because it means you never have to repeat yourself.”

While the medium has some structural limitations, it is the most limitless medium in certain ways, according to Pizzolo.

“Each issue, despite it being one overarching story, is its own little tale with its own dramatic arc that is playing with different genres as it moves forward.”

— Magdalene Visaggio, writer of "Kim & Kim."

“Yes you can do big cosmic adventures, but I mean in terms of how honest you can be, how brave you can be, how personal you can be, how provocative you can be – there really is no one stopping you from doing any story whatsoever, or from taking on any topic whatsoever, other than yourself,” Pizzolo said. “Every creator really is pretty unbridled.”

This leads to a more personal experience between creator and audience, Pizzolo said.

“I feel like the comics I read growing up impacted me personally in a more immediate way than films or television did,” Pizzolo explained. “I think there is a really exciting opportunity working in comics where there is really nothing coming between you and your audience – any story you want to tell, comic books will accommodate you, and create a framework where you can tell that story.”